Thursday, January 17, 2013

Aaron Swartz

I am saddened by suicide of one so young and with so much potential to do even more in his lifetime.  This week was the funeral of Aaron Swartz.  At only 26, Aaron had accomplished more than most people his age by helping with the creation of RSS and Reddit. 

One of the later topics we will be discussing this semester is Legal and Ethical Issues.  There are many things we do that may not be legal (downloading music, movies, etc.).  The question of legal issues and having free access on the internet was taken to a whole new extreme and I am interested to hear your opinion (both in class and virtually). 

Aaron Swartz believed in open access of knowledge on the internet.  In 2011 Aaron was arrested for downloading millions of journal articles from JSTOR in order to make it publicly available.  The possibility of up to 35 years in prison was too much and this caused him to take his own life.

If someone does something wrong, or more accurately illegal, what are appropriate punishments that can be taken to discourage others, but that are still fair?

I know this discussion is a little early, but since the topic came out now, feel free to post comments! 

Some references you guys can look at:


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/technology/aaron-swartz-a-data-crusader-and-now-a-cause.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=tw-nytimes&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://www.suntimes.com/business/17594002-420/aaron-swartz-memorialized-at-service.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 30, 2013 at 1:03 PM

    Its really sad to hear that someone in this age committed suicide ,but what is more touching to the heart is the reason why he did take his own life.I think what this person really wants is make education accessible to more people ,and this is what J store or other online journals should really think about.I mean we as a community and government say that we encourage education ,but the question is at what level are we willing to help people who don't have access to this kind of online resources?I think its time to review this laws that make a huge number of people either give up on pursuing higher education since they have no access to free online research materials ,or as the case with this 26 years old person face legal punishment if they try to help themselves or other people to get free access to educational materials.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 31, 2013 at 6:23 PM

    It is very sad to hear about this. Its all about the money. Lots of people download illegal content. Technically this is wrong because the rightful owners/artists lose money. These corporations/companies lose millions of dollars from lost revenue. They are forcing the government to combat this with severe punishments. I think prison term is too harsh.

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